Jeff Kent to retire.
Aside from a possible Hall of Fame induction, you will probably never hear about Jeff Kent again.
The Associated Press reported last hour that the Dodgers second baseman plans to announce his retirement from baseball Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Kent, who was born March 7, 1968 in Bellflower, seemed to have been born about 30 years too late. He wore an old-school moustache and an old-school attitude, and in the offseason he wore a cowboy hat on his old-school cowboy ranch near San Antonio.
He was prickly like a desert cactus, the type of gentleman who showed up at the ballpark to put on his uniform, hit the crap out of the baseball, head back into the clubhouse and - do you have time for a couple questions, Jeff? (the answer wasn't always yes) - then head home. It's only appropriate that his most productive seasons as a baseball player came wearing a black hat, for the San Francisco Giants from 1997-2002.
He was just as famous for his feuds with teammates as his 377 career home runs, including a record 351 hit as a second baseman. Take careful note of who he thanks tomorrow, as well as five years from now at his Hall of Fame induction speech. It could be a short list. Which isn't to say Kent was a jerk; he just wasn't a people person. His fielding skills lasted longer than his interpersonal skills - which, come to mention it, held up fairly well over 17 seasons.
Though his range died a slow and painful death, he made 11 errors last season in 116 games at second base, not bad for a 40-year-old. And he hit .280 in 440 at-bats, mostly from the oblivion of the bottom of the Dodgers' lineup. The question is not will Kent make the Hall of Fame, but which team's cap will his bronzed likeness don?
Let me be the first to nominate an unmarked cowboy hat.
Comments
Good riddance to bad rubbish. The only reason Kent makes the Hall is BECAUSE he played 2B, a position devoid of much greatness, not because he was great second baseman.
Posted by: Dennis Pope | January 21, 2009 9:53 PM